Leeds City Council
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Leeds ffi CITY COUNCIL Tom Riordan Professor PaulWiles Chief Executive Local Government Boundary 3d Floor Commission Civic Hall for England Leeds LS1 1UR 14th Floor Millbank Tower Tel: 0113247 4554 Millbank Minicom: 0113247 4000 LONDON SWl P 4QP tom. riordan@leeds. gov. uk Our reference: Let 213ITR/NM L ?"*l 27 January 2016 Please find enclosed Leeds' council size evidence and electorate forecast information as our submission for consideration during the Electoral Review. This was agreed at a meeting of the council's Executive Board on 20 January 2015. You will note that we are asking for consideration that the current council size of 99 Members is retained. ln addition to the information enclosed, I would like to add my personal support for our submission. The regional, city and ward roles Members play are critically important and collectively the variety of roles and requirements, together with the scale of our unitary geography (twice the size of Birmingham), justify, in my opinion, the retention of all 99 Members. These roles will become even more integral given the current projections of population growth across our area. Any reduction in our council size will only reduce our effectiveness at responding to these needs, and when you consider that alongside the geographic scale and diversity of Leeds I hope you will agree that our council size should remain unchanged. You will already be aware that the call in period for Executive Board's decision expires on 2g January and John Mulcahy will confirm whether or not the decision has been subject to call in after then. He will also provide a full electronic copy of our submission for you to use to upload to your web page. I hope you find the information provided useful for your discussions and I look forward to receiving your "minded to" decision after your Board meeting on 23 February. /r-r--,_ ((*-- Tom Riordan Chief Executive www.leeds.gov. uk general enquiries : 0113 222 4444 Q INVESTOR IN PEOPLE Electoral Review of Leeds City council Leeds’ submission on Council Size to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England 1 | Page Contents Page Joint Statement from Group Leaders 5 Executive Summary 8 Part 1 Introduction 23 Part 2 A City of Towns and Villages 25 Areas of Distinctive Character 25 Leeds as a Visitor Destination 29 Housing 29 Population 30 Electorate Size 32 Ratio of Councillors 32 Deprivation and Health Inequalities 36 Higher Education 41 Local Elections 42 Community Leadership – the National and Local Perspective 43 Town and Parish Councils 44 Neighbourhood Forums 45 Part 3 Leeds City Council Governance Arrangements 48 Full Council 48 Council Committees and Membership 49 Committee Seats 56 Budget and Policy Framework 56 Executive Arrangements 57 Community Committees 61 Community Committee Champions 64 Scrutiny 66 Regulatory Committees 70 Plans Panels 70 Licensing 71 Young People and Engagement with the Council 74 Part 4 Elected Members 77 Ward Level 77 City Council 79 Regional 79 National/International 79 Appointments to Outside Bodies 79 Member Questionnaire 80 Executive and Shadow Members 88 Support to Members 91 Members’ Allowances 92 Member Development and Training 93 2 | Page Contents Page Part 5 Wider Perspectives – Views from Third Parties 94 Independent Person 94 Chair of Parish Council 95 Chief Executive of a Local Charity 96 Chair of Leeds City College 97 Chief Superintendent West Yorkshire Police 99 Chair of Independent Remuneration Panel 100 Part 6 Leeds – A Growing City and a Catalyst for the Northern 102 Powerhouse – Looking towards 2030 Financial Pressures 102 Cities and Local Government Devolution Bill 104 Our Best City Ambitions 105 Employment and the Economy 105 The Local Development Framework 107 Housing Growth 110 Local Authority Housing 111 Health 112 Adult Social Care 113 Transport 113 School Places 115 Community Hubs 116 Community and Other Services 117 Part 7 Conclusions 118 3 | Page Appendices Appendix 1 Electorate Forecasts Appendix 2 Community Committee Annual Report 2015 Appendix 3 Scrutiny Annual Report 2015 Appendix 4i Councillor Duties Appendix 4ii Survey to Leeds City Council Elected Members on Boundary Commission Changes 2015 Appendix 4iii Member Casework Appendix 5 Best Council Plan 2015 – 2020 Appendix 6 Director of Public Health Annual Report 2015 4 | Page JOINT STATEMENT FROM GROUP LEADERS We introduce this submission to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England on behalf of the constituents of the City of Leeds which we, and our elected colleagues, represent. The last electoral review of the Leeds area concluded in July 2003. As part of that review the Commission considered the question of council size and at that time, four years after a move to a Leader and cabinet form of governance, the Commission was persuaded by the arguments we put forward that a council formed of 99 members from 33 wards presented the optimum sixe. In particular the Commission took account of the multiplicity and range of responsibilities and duties and members’ representational role, which place considerable demands on members. The council also argued, and the Commission agreed, that to enable a composition of members, that reflects the diversity of society and is open to all sections of it ‘workloads must not become so excessive as to exclude people from serving as a councillors unless they are prepared to give up paid employment’. Those arguments are stronger and even more compelling now than they were in 2003. Since that time members’ workloads have significantly increased. New responsibilities have been entrusted to local government for example for licensing and for public health and a new power of general competence has enabled greater creativity in working across traditional organisational and sector boundaries. Additionally our new community committees with their delegated budgets, locally managed services and oversight of joined up local service delivery (through our appointed community committee champions and local thematic working groups), have significantly enhanced members’ roles and responsibilities. As the state shrinks our approach is to get more power down to localities and local members; both from central government to the city region level and from our own city level to localities. The council’s response to these challenges has been to seize the opportunity to shape our own future. 5 | Page Building on the idea of civic enterprise, developed from the Commission for Local Government, which was conceived and led by Leeds City Council, our approach to taking control of our own destiny is captured in our vision for Leeds to be the best city in the UK. We have three key themes which drive our work to become the best city: for Leeds to have a strong economy, to be a compassionate city and for the council to become more efficient and enterprising. Our aim is that communities will be less reliant on the state and more resilient. This shift has considerable implications for the way in which the council makes decisions and develops strategies and for our financial and workforce planning. It requires a sound understanding of people’s needs and their demands (now and in the future) and a greater than ever level of engagement with the citizens of Leeds at a locality level. Our structure of governance, and members’ fundamental role in that framework, are pivotal to providing strategic and community leadership on that journey. All our councillors are on the front line. All have a highly valued community leadership role. The strength and resilience of our governance arrangements enables the functions of the council to benefit from high quality political leadership and oversight but not at the expense of locally based constituency responsibilities. We have considered whether there is a prima facie case for change in the number of councillors elected to the authority and found no strength of argument for either an increase or decrease. Rather we argue in this document that our existing 33 wards, with 3 members per ward, continues to accurately reflect the individual characteristics of our district and it is our conclusion, supported by all political groups and by third parties who have expressed a view, that a council size of 99 members ensures an equitable distribution of councillors across the district, allowing for effective representation of all our communities and an optimum and proportionate division of responsibilities to executive and non-executive councillors. 6 | Page It is our view that any reduction in the number of members of council would be unsustainable and inefficient and would diminish our ability to effectively undertake our statutory duties and would be to the detriment of representative democracy in the city. Signed Signed Signed Councillor Councillor Councillor Judith Blake Andrew Stewart Carter Golton Leader of Leader of the Leader of the Council & Opposition & Liberal Leader of the Leader of the Democrat Labour Group Conservative Group Group Signed Signed Councillor Councillor Robert David Finnigan Blackburn Leader of the Leader of the MBI Group Green Group 7 | Page EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Leeds is a regional capital and the main economic driver for Yorkshire and the Humber. Leeds’ economic recovery is entering a considerable period of growth including the delivery of the targets set out in the Core Strategy relating to housing growth. Set against that we are faced with further reductions in our budget over the life of this Parliament requiring difficult and sensitive decisions to be taken on service provision. The council, significantly through our 99 councillors, has a depth of understanding of people’s needs, of the challenges facing communities and of the city’s potential. Our level of engagement with the citizens of Leeds at a locality level is central to this, as is having sufficient capacity within our elected member structure to ensure that our ambitions can be delivered. In this regard Leeds’ councillors have a strong track record in facilitating the successful delivery of major and complex regeneration programmes through managing, enabling and co-ordinating work with partners and investors both in the public and private sectors.